This section introduces aspects that may be helpful in facilitating a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Many technical and psychological obstacles prohibit wide acceptance of video conferencing. For example, providing sufficient video and audio coverage of conference participants in a meeting room can be difficult and expensive. Typically, commercial video conferencing systems are designed to be placed at the edge of a meeting room, close to a TV unit with a dedicated special camera on top of the TV unit. However, this configuration provides inadequate video coverage of meeting participants and other possible points of interest in the room, e.g., a whiteboard, demonstration setups, etc. Audio coverage may also be a problem, as remote meeting participants may frequently experience less than ideal audio coverage at a remote meeting site.
In addition, for a camera to function, transmission of video signals using high bandwidth is needed, therefore, video cameras are placed close to a video conferencing Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), which controls a video conferencing system, so the video cameras can be connected via industry-standard, high speed interfaces such as IEEE 1394 (FireWire) or Universal Serial Bus (USB). Also the MCU may be connected to a monitor.